Ferrari 275?
Jaguar E Type?
Cox Cheetah?
Kellison J6??
No, it's an Intermeccanica Apollo, the bodyshells were styled and built in Italy then shipped to California to be fitted with the Buick V8 engine, the one that was to become the Rover V8 a few years later. The company founders reasoned that while the looks of a Ferrari were very desirable, the fact that a set of carburettors cost more than an entire American V8 engine was uncomfortable for some owners. Wouldn't it be great, they said, if you could get European GT looks and still get it serviced at your local garage for Buick prices? And there was the question of reliability too; European sports cars of the time weren't at their best in the traffic of the West Coast, American cars were made for this kind of punishment. Milt Brown, Ron Plescia, and Ned Davis must have been giddy with excitement at this idea, it couldn't possibly go wrong!
They approached Carrozzeria Intermeccanica in Italy with some sketches of a car that looked like a Ferrari but with E Type proportions, underneath they planned to use the 1961 Buick Special with its sophisticated four link trailing arm suspension which used coil springs instead of the more common leaf springs. Reports of the time compared it favourably with the Corvette and even the much more expensive Aston Martin DB4 and Ferrari.
Sales were steady at 2 cars a month, but the demon of small companies everywhere - cash flow and lack of investors - was soon causing trouble. Production lurched to a new owner in Texas which soon failed and went back to California to a different owner. Sadly the whole operation folded after just 88 cars were made.
In 1967 Disney Studios had contracted Max Balchowsky about preparing two Apollo GTs for their forthcoming film "The Love Bug", he worked with Carey Loftin (as they worked on Mustang and Charger for Bullitt) to get the cars ready for filming. Balchowsky made several modifications to strengthen the car for its high speed work. You know the final stunt in Bullitt where the Charger crashes and explodes? That was done with Carey Loftin's "tow and release" system where he drove the Mustang towing the Charger then released the cable letting the driverless Charger crash. Exactly the same system was used with the Apollo releasing the VW here
I'd already decided that I wanted to make a Herbie slot car
But these things run better together, so I needed an Apollo to go with it. There wasn't a model kit or toy in existence so I got a 3D artist to model one up.
I got the 3D file onto my chassis assembly to check for clearance with the steering mechanism, the bonnet line is very low! Once the file had its surfaces stitched together it was ready for 3D printing to make the master model.
The surface finish is rough so it needed painting, sanding, painting, sanding, painting... until it was good enough for a silicone mould to be taken and resin bodyshells could be produced.
The windows were made up as vacuum forms, the interior from the VW could be reused so the only outstanding issue was the graphics. This took a loooong time to get right, but this morning the waterslide transfers arrived on my doorstep.
"Havershaw, if you tell me the bubbles tickle your nose, I shall probably kill you!"
